Dems, labor pounce on Romney outsourcing story

A Washington Post story detailing Bain Capital's record of investing in companies that outsourced jobs overseas to countries like China while Mitt Romney was at the helm broke on the last day of work at a localT-Mobile call center in Hanover Township that will leave hundreds unemployed.

Citing Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the story says the companies were "pioneers" in shifting work, like call centers, out of the United States.

As Democrats and union leaders pounced on the Romney story like Christmas had come in June, local Lehigh Valley Democrats and labor groups held a protest at the T-Mobile site near the end of the work day, claiming that the U.S. call center jobs will now be handled by people in the Philippines, Guatemala, Mexico and other countries.

“Romney and his firm Bain Capital helped usher in the era of outsourcing, a short term opportunity that has created long terms problems for America’s middle class.” Yuri Beckelman, the Pennsylvania spokesman for theAFL-CIO, said in an email. “It’s Romney’s vision for America that’s costing 600 T-Mobile employees in the Lehigh Valley their jobs today.”

The Romney hits came from all sides. Even President Barack Obama invoked the Washington Post story on the stump in Tampa, telling a crowd of supporters, "we don’t need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office." Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod in a call with reporters said Romney would be the "outsourcer-in-chief."

The story feeds directly into the Democrats' narrative that the business experience Romney touts for why he should be president is based on profits not job creation. The Romney campaign hit back calling the story "fundamentally flawed."

"Mitt Romney spent 25 years in the real world economy so he understands why jobs come and they go,” Andrea Saul, Romney spokeswoman said in a statement. “As president, he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home. President Obama's attacks on profit and job creators make it less attractive to create jobs in the U.S.”

The outsourcing of call centers received some additional press this week when Democrats futilely pushed the GOP-led House to take up a bill that would discourage companies from outsourcing call center jobs by making them ineligible for grants and loans.

Rick Daugherty, a Democrat challenging U.S. Rep Charlie Dent, was at the T-Mobile protest. He said the layoffs demonstrate that legislation is needed to protect call center jobs in the United States. “When you give your social security number to someone at a call center in the Philippines, it’s much more at risk for fraud,” he said.

The protest was part of the AFL-CIO's America Wants to Work campaign to draw attention to jobs being outsourced. A Senate Democrats bill that would provide tax breaks to companies bringing jobs back to the United States is expected to receive a vote in the upper chamber in July, according to Bloomberg.